Murphy clinches PTC title

The former world champion continued the devastating form he had shown in his earlier semi-final against Matthew Stevens as he played Gould out of the match.

World number 26 Gould, playing in his first televised ranking event final, was perhaps feeling the after effects of a draining match against Mark Selby a few hours before, as he missed opportunities in both the opening frames to end up trailing 2-0.

Gould had a great chance to get back into the match in the third frame, but failed to punish Murphy when the world number five's break dried up on 53 as he missed a pink that would have got him into the match.

Murphy made no such mistake, then ground his way through a scrappy fourth frame to clinch the title.

Murphy, who finished top of the rankings after the 12 PTC competitions to qualify for Ireland, has enjoyed the PTCs and thinks they will be even more popular next season.

"The PTCs have been fantastic for me," said Murphy.

"I've spoken to some players that weren't supportive of it in its infancy and they've said they'll be playing a lot more next year. They've said they wished they'd played in more and were here, but I've capitalised on their absence.

"In the past, under the old regime, there were always rumours of new events talked about but they never happened.

"As a result some of the players were overly-sceptical and not sure the PTCs would take off. But here on a Sunday afternoon the crowd is packed, the arena is full and the event has taken off.

"We've been going around the world playing and in the PTCs we played around Europe and in Sheffield and Gloucester but where you play is irrelevant. Players just want the opportunity to play and we have that now."

Murphy claimed the £60,000 prize to the winner at the culmination of one of the first initiatives Barry Hearn instigated when he became World Snooker chairman in 2010.